The loop runs 17 nanoseconds per step with a multiplication operation and an assignment operation.

Clearly, the execution time of a multiplication operation, i*3, is about 3 nanoseconds in interpreted-only mode.
This conclusion can be arrived from test results of 10000, 100000 and 1000000 steps and minus
the assignment loop execution time: 17 - 14 = 3 nanoseconds.

This result is a surprise to me. Comparing with the previous add operation test,
i*3 takes the same execution time as i+i. I thought a multiplication operation is always slower that an add operation.
This is probably related the constant 3 used in the multiplication.